Introduction
The Heplion Contingency is a speculative fiction story that blends fantasy and sci-fi in a setting where psychic powers shaped mankind into an advanced, interplanetary society, though with practically no technology to speak of. It has elements of cyberpunk, space opera, noir, pulp fiction and high fantasy, brewed together into what I call "psy-punk". This wiki expands upon the story's setting, detailing its many planets and the societies that live on them. Overview In the planet known as Iriond, humankind evolved on a different track than the one we know. Having discovered the full potential of the mind from an early age, the different human civilizations quickly shaped themselves around the use of psychic powers, ruled by dynasties psychically altered into superior beings. When they looked to the stars and developed powers advanced enough to explore distant planets, they found these had sentient races of their own, many mysteriously similar to the ones known back in their homeworld, and some of them possessing psionic abilities similar to the mightiest humans. Now, milennia after the rise of interplanetary exploration, humanity has joined several planets into a web of communities interconnected by trade, culture, science, and the occasional war. Three supranational political entities rose to the fore of the now-interplanetary human civilization (having also accepted several alien societies into their fold): the Confederated States of the Pact of Tarinnia (also known as the Tarinnish Confederacy), the Pan-Muranian Union and the Allied Free Nations. There is also a Universal Forum, created with the intent of mediating the international relations of all humankind, but which largely serves as a common political arena and buffer zone between the three major entities. The Confederacy hails from the continents of Emish and Gulorien in Iriond, and has expanded to the planets of Asherah and 6072 Reshep II (although, after a bloody secession war, Reshep maintains a high degree of autonomy, and is somewhat of a "rebel province".) The Union was forged from a merger of several countries in the Iriondan continent of Murania, and extended its rule to the Muranian-colonized planet 4658 Austolus III, also known as New Eugeron (after an ancient Muranian empire). The AFN is a loose coalition of like-minded countries, mostly from northeastern Murania and Hellonde in Iriond, largely based on the idea of free enterprise. It has colonized the planet known as Chertan V. A few centuries ago, a new planet (officially named 2514 Bhadrapada VI, also known as "Rancent's World" after its discoverer) has been found and settled by representatives from all three human factions, which vie for its dominance. It's remarkably similar to Iriond in physical characteristics, weather and ecology, which is why some call it "New Earth". Its native life is remarkably varied and developed, with many interesting civilizations. Its largest city is Harmony, founded by Dr. Rancent himself, an independent city-state where people from all sorts of different places and species mingle freely. Now, human society has grown highly decadent, with overpopulation and the exploitation of psychics driving most planets to the brink of their capacity, and with corporations growing ever more powerful and ruthless. Rancent's World stands as a beacon of hope for a better future, with its fresh civilizations and well-kept natural resources... although it is also a fresh source of conflict, with the potential to plunge the worlds into a new, bloody interplanetary war. Behind the Scenes The "Heplionverse" started out as a D&D campaign setting. It came from the idea of taking the game rules, classes, races, monsters etc. of D&D (the "crunch") and fitting it with "fluff" (concepts, descriptions, in-character explanations) that's as different from D&D's original "fluff" as possible. There are three big premises that guided this setting's development and give it its feel: (1) Instead of Material, Inner and Outer Planes, there are simply planets that have been settled or explored by the galaxy's more advanced civilizations through psychic means - mostly the sci-fi equivalent to plane-hopping spells such as Gate, Plane Shift and Astral Spell. (2) Instead of outsiders such as celestials and fiends, we have transhumans, people who have improved their bodies and minds through psychic means and their descendants, and which pretty much rule human society. So these beings are theoretically human, although much different in practice and much more powerful. However, many of D&D's Outsiders are simply alien races here. (3) Technology hasn't improved much past the equivalent of the Middle Ages or maybe Renaissance in our world (depending on the field), although in some fields such as economics, mathematics, chemistry and others it's equivalent to our own time or even more advanced. The only hard-and-fast rule I've got is that there is no gunpowder or anything more destructive than that (i.e. nuclear), no combustion engines (nor anything more advanced such as rockets), and no electrical or electronic devices. There are, however, psychic devices that do the job of many of our modern technologies, though usually in a very different way. Since I'm working off of D&D (I'm using 3.5 edition, mostly for the SRD's ease of use), there may be places where I refer to D&D concepts, at least until I've gotten around to assigning a setting-specific name for that thing; in those cases, I'll try to remember to use brackets. For example, I might say that orcs are actually a genetically-modified version of half-orcs, which are a peaceful if primitive race from Rancent's World. I've got a big spreadsheet with a "translation" table between D&D and this sci-fi setting; theoretically, all you'd need to play a campaign in this setting would be the D&D books and this table. I'll try to find a way to post it here sometime, though right now it hasn't got that many entries yet.